Recent updates

On the 8th of October 2019, ‘Les Misérables’ will open the 46th edition of Film Fest Gent. Ladj Ly’s feature film directorial debut was applauded at its premiere in Cannes where it also received the Jury Prize.

After having released the names of the nominees for Best Original Song Written Directly for a Film, Best Film Composer of the Year and Best Television Composer of the Year, the World Soundtrack Academy announces a second wave of nominees for Best Original Score for a Belgian Production, Discovery of the Year, SABAM Award for the Most Original Composition by a Young International Composer and the Public Choice Award. For the 19th edition, The World Soundtrack Academy welcomes a remarkably diverse group of nominees, in background as well as training and medium.

'Tench' ('Muidhond') is a confronting film on a sensitive topic: paedophilia. This Belgian production will open the official competition of the 46th edition of Film Fest Gent. Ken Loach's latest feature film and a thrilling short by the Greek director Yorgos Lanthimos will also be screened -for the first time in Belgium - at the festival.

On the 8th of October 2019, ‘Les Misérables’ will open the 46th edition of Film Fest Gent. Ladj Ly’s feature film directorial debut was applauded at its premiere in Cannes where it also received the Jury Prize.

The World Soundtrack Awards will welcome composer Krzysztof Penderecki, our generation's most outstanding musician, known for creating inventive and unconventional music, he has worked with world-famous directors such as Stanley Kubrick, Martin Scorsese, David Lynch and William Friedkin, many of whom still rely on his work.

Since the early beginnings, the focus on music and the celebration of film composers have been the main features that make Film Fest Gent truly stand out in the international festival calendar. This year being no exception, Film Fest Gent Music again offers a wide range of musical projects for you to enjoy.

In line with tradition, a selection of the World Soundtrack Award's main guest's music will be recorded and released for the annual 'Music for Film' album. Some of Marco Beltrami's best scores will be recorded on August 19th to 21st, in Flagey's legendary Studio 4, recorded by MotorMusic withBrussels Philharmonic, conducted by Dirk Brossé.

This first wave of the 2019 World Soundtrack Award Nominees includes multiple Academy Award® and Golden Globe® nominees, the best of contemporary film and television music as well as hiphop's biggest rock star Post Malone and other pop artists.

Impressed by the score of 'Dumbo'? Overwhelmed by the music of 'Vice'? Help your favourite film score receive the World Soundtrack Public Choice Award! Film score fans worldwide can now cast their vote for what they consider the best score of the past 12 months. The score with the highest number of votes will receive the World Soundtrack Public Choice Award 2019!

For its 46th edition, which will take place from 8 to 18 October, Film Fest Gent 2019 is bringing the Spanish cinematographic sphere to Ghent, traditionally with much emphasis on soundtracks. Actress Rossy de Palma, the muse of one of the most famous Spanish directors - Pedro Almodóvar – is the face of the campaign.

We will once again join forces for ten days of film and music with Vooruit during Film Fest Gent 2019. After a first succesful edition of Videodroom in 2018 we will again present a series of concert evenings where top musicians, representing a diversity of genres, come and play new compositions live to accompany films and projections. These new pieces may be new interpretations of existing scores or completely new, unique improvisations. Exclusive, one-off crossovers that you’ll only find at Vooruit.

Held on October 18th, the World Soundtrack Awards will welcome Marco Beltrami, two-time Oscar nominated composer and one of the most brilliant film composers of his generation, known for his unique collaborations with some of the world’s most respected and iconic filmmakers such as Kathryn Bigelow, James Mangold, Guillermo Del Toro, Wes Craven, Bertrand Tavernier, Tommy Lee Jones and Jean-François Richet.

Young international film music talent will have the chance to win the highly sought after SABAM Award for the Most Original Composition by a Young International Composer. This award was created by the World Soundtrack Academy and is worth € 2.500. The compositions of the three finalists will be performed by Brussels Philharmonic, conducted by maestro Dirk Brossé, during the 19th World Soundtrack Awards on 18 October 2019.

Film Fest Gent presented the 45th edition of the festival in October 2018. It offered a program with a fine selection of high-quality films, including the opening film 'Girl' and the winner of the international jury 'Cold War' (now in theatres), but also with a lot of 'smaller' films ('First Reformed', 'Hotel by the River', 'Long Day's Journey Into Night') and a series of rediscoverable classics (with a Tribute to the Hungarian director Miklos Jancso). The music section which, in addition to the World Soundtrack Awards Gala, also presented the first edition of Videodroom in collaboration with Vooruitand a series of film music industry events for an international group of young composers, was very well received. The program received a lot of attention of press and public, both nationally and internationally. The festival welcomed 106.013 visitors in its 2018 edition.

After winning the Grand Prix earlier this week, 'Cold War' also received the Canvas Audience Award. The TV channel had selected five films out of the entire programme, out of which Paweł Pawlikowski's internationally acclaimed drama scored the most audience votes.

You have decided: 'Capharnaüm', the Lebanese Oscar submission by director Nadine Labaki, wins the North Sea Port Audience Award. After eleven festival days, during which around 150 movies were screened, the emotionally convincing film received the highest praise of the audience.

The youth jury awarded the Explore Zone Award to Philip Grönings drama 'Mein Bruder heißt Robert und ist ein Idiot' for "his audacity, absurdism and unusual way to tackle certain themes". This award is presented to the best film out of the Explore Zone. This trail concentrates on films aimed at young people between 18 and 26 years old.

'Cold War' by Oscar winner Paweł Pawlikowski ('Ida' and 'The Summer of Love') received the Grand Prix for Best Film at the closing night of Film Fest Gent. The Georges Delerue Award for Best Music was given to Claire Denis' space drama 'High Life'. Sonam Larcins ‘Après le silence’ won the Award vor Best Belgian Student Short, while Ottó Bánovits' 'Dark Chamber' won Best European Short.

Slaps precede sweet talk and lovers’ tussles are primal and sexually charged in Yorgos Lanthimos’ ‘The Favourite’ (2018). Sex and power prove to be interconnected forces at play and feed off of each other, often in destructive ways. The film is an irreverent spin on a cliché-ridden genre that in Lanthimos’ capable hands transforms into a hilarious lesbian love and sex story involving a battle of wits coupled with a mud-caked, spittle-flecked take on physical comedy.

The annual World Soundtrack Awards have been given out during the 45th edition of Film Fest Gent in Belgium tonight. The winners of the 18th WSAwards include Jóhann Jóhannsson, Ramin Djawadi, Kendrick Lamar, Rutger Reinders, Tamar-kali, Laurent Eyquem, Logan Nelson and Philippe Sarde, who received the Lifetime Achievement Award.

The title of “I Do Not Care If We Go Down in History As Barbarians” comes as part of a larger monologue about halfway through Radu Jude’s newest filmic hybrid of fiction and history, when an actor portraying Nazi collaborator Ion Antonescu quotes a speech, which was originally delivered in 1941 to justify the massacre of Romanian Jews.

Out of the several literary giants that director Nuri Bilge Ceylan namechecks in the end credits of ‘The Wild Pear Tree’, Dostoevsky seems to have the strongest presence, since what has come before has been determined by the whims and failings of an ‘underground man’ named Sinan.

Brisk honesty in long takes is the main character in actor Paul Dano’s debut feature Wildlife (2018). The anthropomorphised camera is the unnamed sibling in this 1960s American family portrait, based on a novel of the same name by Richard Ford, telling the coming-of-age story of Jerry (Jake Gyllenhaal), Jean (Carey Mulligan), and their son Joe (Ed Oxenbould).